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Preaching at Gateway

by Madhumangala das

Please accept my humble obeisances, All glories to our most dearly beloved Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga. All glories to the Sankirtan devotees of the Lord!

This past Sunday after sankirtan, Bhakta Quinton and I were at the Gateway mall waiting to be picked up to go back to the temple. There was some confusion to get the right cell number for Jivan Prabhu who was to pick us up. We were standing in front of one those yuppy Italian restaurants that have those incredible corny names. We were standing near to the customers at the table – just as I turned round, a man approached me and asked me if I needed any help. I thought to myself: Here we go, its probably the manager coming to tell us to move away from the tables. He said that it looked like we were having some trouble. I shook his hand and introduced myself to him and told him that I was a travelling monk. “Thank you very much, its very important that you get these, and very important that you take them, please have a look at these.” I began handing him a book, one at a time. “Oh that’s nice, I am a Buddhist myself. Looking at the selection of books, he said, “Why sure, thanks a lot, how much do I owe you,” and gave me a donation. “So there you go sir, it’s important that I distribute these books, by you taking them you have benefited, and by me distributing them to you, I have also benefited.” He nodded his head in agreement, as just then our ride back to the temple arrived.

Yesterday morning during the Srimad Bhagavatam class, given by His Grace, Sankarsan Prabhu, in the purport Srila Prabhupada was mentioning, how Krsna becomes pleased by the sincere service of the devotee – I then began to think about the man who asked me, in a very sincere way if he could help, Krsna induces the fallen and conditioned soul to take one of Srila Prabhupada’s books by our sincerity to distribute His message. Also we should take the opportunity to distribute his books at every moment and realize how urgent it is that the fallen and conditioned souls get them, so that they will have a chance to go back home, back to Godhead. Srila Prabhupada ki jay!